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Completed: The Lady Skater Dress

About a month ago, Amanda contacted me and asked if I’d like to participate in her Lady Skater Pattern Tour, to promote this awesome new pattern that she had just released. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to participate – my fabric funds are currently pretty tight right now, and YES IT SUCKS – but after chatting for a hot minute (with me flapping my arms and squawking about how much I was dying to sew the pattern up), Amanda offered to send me some yardage from her shop, Kitschy Coo.

Specificially, this ice blue tiger knit. HOLY SHIT, right?!

I’m really not trying to be cocky here, but I’m fairly confident that I have the best dress in the world now. For real.

I’m supposed to talk about the pattern, so let’s discuss that first! This is the Lady Skater Dress pattern – a basic knit dress pattern that opens itself up to a world of customizations, and it’s EASY. It’s so easy, y’all. If you’ve never sewn a knit before, this is a great pattern to use for toe-dipping.

Let me put it this way – whenever I sew up a new pattern (especially if I’m testing), I keep a notebook on hand to write myself little notes. Stuff like adjustments on size or construction, whatever I can think of that will help other people who are sewing the same pattern. When I sewed this dress, I literally did not make ANY notes. The instructions cover every single thing that I would have already said – even down to creative cutting layouts to make the most of your fabric yardage. If that’s not a sign of a well-written pattern, I don’t know what is 🙂

My dress is a size 2, which corresponds perfectly with my measurements. I made absolutely no changes to the sizing – this is how it fit straight out of the ~~envelope~~errr, printer ;). I did shorten the length a little, but that’s just a personal preference. The skirt should hit about at your knees, if you keep it at the length as printed.

Like I said, the instructions on this dress are pretty fabulous. Amanda has you stabilize both the shoulder seams and the waistline seam with clear elastic – something I’ve never done before. I’ve used twill tape (topstitched down with a twin needle), and fusible interfacing (which, obviously, doesn’t require sewing on, so it’s invisible), so I was interested to see how this worked out. First of all, I should mention that I didn’t have any clear elastic on hand, nor could I be arsed to buy any. SOWWY. I used regular ol’ polyester elastic, 1/4″ wide, and followed the same instructions for the clear. You basically sew the elastic on right along the seam allowance, so when it comes time to sew your pieces together, they are permanently attached along the seam.

Here is my waist seam. You can’t see it from the inside, but guys – it works. My fabric is a bit heavy, but the waist seam stays exactly where it should (instead of sagging and being sad and droopy). I should also point out that I took these pictures after wearing the dress all day. Nice, yeah? 😉

I love the skirt on this dress! It has a nice flare, but it’s not so huge that it eats up too much fabric, or creates difficulties when navigating the world on a windy day.

The only thing I’m not crazy about are the wrinkles on the back. There are instructions on the pattern to eliminate this, but I’d already sewn my top and bottom together and I couldn’t be arsed to unpick the serging (yep, sorry, lazy LT). I may try to fix it on the next go-round, but honestly? It’s the back of the dress. I’m not looking at it, therefore, I’m not sure if I really care 😛

I decided early on that I wanted something contrasty for my neck and arm bands. Initially, I wanted black, but I didn’t have anything suitable in my stash. This polka dot knit is from Mood, and it’s a pretty perfect match, yeah? I tend to shy away from mixing prints, but I don’t think this is too busy at all!

I think it’s funny that I somehow managed to match the tigers at the back waist seam (trust me… that was unintentional, haha!). Wish it would have worked out for the front, too. Oh well!

Srsly, tho: TIGERS.

Sorry for the picture overload, I am really enjoying the macro setting on my new camera, haha!! My topstitching was done with a double needle, and white wooly nylon thread in the bobbin.

So, like, you know what’s better than white tiger knit fabric?